Kristen Stevenson
Kristen Stevenson (Born November 4, 1976), is an American gymnast and politician, currently serving as the Representative for Massachusetts's 9th Congressional District. Stevenson was an Olympic gymnast in her youth winning two silver medals at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and competing at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She married Thomas Stevenson in 1999 and was the First Lady of Massachusetts from 2003-2011. In 2012, Stevenson was defeated in a race for Senate after admitting to an affair that led to her divorce. Stevenson was elected to the House in 2016 in the 9th District and announced a run for the Senate seat of Alexander Breckenridge in 2017. Early Life and Childhood Kristen Stevenson was born on November 4, 1976 in Nantucket, Massachusetts, to a well-off family, her parents' only child. Stevenson's mother died in when she was nine years old, leaving her to be raised by her father, a retired doctor. Stevenson attended private schools through her childhood, and was considered a fairly adept student. Stevenson would miss a half-semester of school at sixteen years of age following an athletics-induced "burnout." Athletic Career Stevenson began her participation in gymnastics from an early age, on the urging of her father. Noted to display excellent coordination and flexibility, she was considered to have a high potential as a future gymnast. Stevenson qualified for the United States National Team in 1996 at nineteen years of age. Stevenson would medal twice at the Atlanta Olympics, taking Silver in the Floor Routine and the Vault, contributing to the U.S. women's team's first-ever team gold as a member of the "Magnificent Seven." Stevenson would return to the Olympics in 2000, but would not win an individual medal, finishing in fourth in the floor routine and sixth in the vault, as the American team won bronze. First Lady of Massachusetts Stevenson met Thomas Stevenson, not a relation of hers, for the first time in 1999. While Thomas, a Republican member of the State Senate, was twenty-six years older than her, forty-eight where she was twenty-two, the couple would marry after only four months of dating. In 2002, Thomas was elected Governor of Massachusetts, and Stevenson assumed the mantle of First Lady. Thomas would serve for two terms, attaining and maintaining a high popularity through to 2010. Kristen would not involve herself in politics, but made efforts in childhood literacy and other non-political areas, likewise attaining a very high popularity in-state. Senatorial Bid In 2012, Thomas Stevenson would enter the Republican primary for President, and would, reportedly, urge his wife to announce her own campaign for Senate. While Thomas's Presidential bid ended after the South Carolina primaries, Stevenson would win the Republican primaries by a broad margin and enter the general election as a prohibitive favorite in what would become a four-way race between Stevenson, Democratic candidate January Wells, Independent former Mayor of Boston and certified genius Alexander Breckenridge, a thirty-two year-old late entrant, and former Democratic Governor Jack McAullife, now running as a Libertarian. Stevenson's campaign was considered to be largely personality-based, owing to her popularity in the state. When discussing issues, Stevenson staked out a moderately liberal position on healthcare, modest support of firearm rights, favoring some protectionist measures, a less interventionist foreign policy than advocated by Breckenridge, and immigration reform. While polling often showed the four candidates within the margin of error of the others, Stevenson maintained a consistently lead entering October, and was considered the favorite for the approaching election. That month, however, photographs were publicized showing Stevenson in close proximity to a male individual who was not her husband while exiting a bar, making some physical contact. Stevenson declared the photographs to be fake. Later in the month, however, Stevenson would come forward to publicly admit to having had an affair with the man in the images, committing adultery against her over sixty year-old husband. Some news outlets suggested that blackmail was the cause of the public admittance, but Stevenson's poll numbers collapsed. Gaffes from Wells and McAullife complicated the race further entering the final weeks. The race moved from contested to functionally settled upon the announcement of Thomas Stevenson that he was endorsing Mayor Breckenridge for the position, withdrawing his previous endorsement of Kristen, and condemning her. Stevenson would finish in a distant third, garnering only nineteen percent of the vote, as Breckenridge won an easy victory with the aid of Republican votes following Thomas's endorsement, educated voters, and with the assistance of his tremendous youth, experience, and charisma. Divorce and Interim Following the revelation of her affair and her defeat in the 2012 election, Stevenson would be divorced by former Governor Stevenson, and would temporarily withdraw from politics, returning to Norfolk, and reconciling with her father, who she had previously held an adversarial relationship with, prior to his death in 2014. The divorce was a very publicly long and messy one that lasted into 2013 and ended with a fault divorce finding in the favor of Thomas allowing him to keep the full estate. Stevenson would begin a return to public life with the curation of her Twitter account, often clashing with Senator Breckenridge and amassing an online following. House of Representatives Stevenson re-entered politics by announcing a bid for office in Massachusetts's Ninth Congressional District, her home district. Stevenson spent extensively on advertising, indebting her campaign, but defeated her Democratic and Progressive opponents to successfully be elected to office. Stevenson would author and pass the American Family Savings Act while in office. She would criticize Democrats who voted against the Countering Racism, Eugenics, and Sexism in Terminations bill as falsely stating support for women. Second Senatorial Bid Stevenson would continue vocal criticism of Senator Breckenridge during her time in Congress. Following the National March for Equality, in which Breckenridge called for the resignation of President Reed following his issuance of an executive order rolling back employment discrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, Stevenson would hold a rally in Boston alongside then-Senate candidate Carter Roberts announcing a primary run against Breckenridge, who had joined the Republican Party after the 2016, for his 2018 re-election bid. Stevenson would criticize Breckenridge after his announcement of the timing of his pending resignation relative to state law regarding special elections, demanding an immediate resignation. Breckenridge would advance the timetable of his resignation slightly following criticism. Stevenson would endorse Carter Roberts for Senate in a rally in Putnam, Connecticut. Stevenson would, following the laying-out of a proposed immigration reform, take a DNA test with the intention of publicizing the results as an accompaniment to the announcement. The test results placed Stevenson as plurality "European Jewish", at 49%, and she expressed surprise at the outcome. Commentary by Mayor Joh Stansky on the test results would lead to accusations of anti-Semitism and criticism from Stevenson, who called him a "racist, misogynistic troll." Stevenson used the same label against Governor Fredrick Williams. Stevenson would debate with Jason Samara, prior to his announcement of his campaign for Senate, over her American Family Savings Act following a radio interview in which Samara criticized Stevenson for having had no interest "besides working towards her own political aspirations." Personal Life Following her divorce from Thomas Stevenson, Stevenson is unmarried, with no children. In addition to her gymnastics career Stevenson took up amateur snowboarding after her Senate loss. Stevenson is half Jewish as discovered from DNA testing. She is roughly 1/4th Scottish, 1/10th German, 1/10th Irish and 1/20th English. Stevenson has said that she doesn't know which of her parents were largely Jewish or if both were and that she was not raised Jewish religiously or culturally. Stevenson has continued to practice gymnastics noncompetitively since her official retirement when she became First Lady of Massachusetts.